Saiprasad's Journal

Oscars nights have their own charm. Oscar speeches – even more so. I believe the recipients are given 45 seconds for their speech. That’s it. Forty-five seconds. To recollect Andy Warhol’s famous saying, every celebrity has only fifteen minutes of fame. And I guess those forty-five seconds form the cream of the fifteen minutes package.

I have good recollections of watching the Oscars on television. I’m not a TV person but I’ll admit, it’s one of those shows that I rarely miss. Not because I’d like to watch celebrities in their fancy – or sometime bizarre – clothing, but because I’m a movie buff (or at least I pretend to be one) and I’d like to see my favorite movies get their due recognition.

Of course there are always questions about credibility of the awards and wrong selection of winners. Well, I had my doubts too in few stages but I think they’re OK. At least, compared to other popular awards. And as usual, I have my own share of grievances about the winners but I’ve come to accept them eventually. Except one which I will never accept – 1994 Best Picture going to Forrest Gump and not Shawshank Redemption (both movies are among my top favorites by the way).

Coming back to Oscar speeches. Some are funny, some prepared, some spontaneous and many of them emotional. Remember those forty-five seconds? Well, it must be the most precious forty-five seconds of their careers. And I’m surprised to admit, most of them just screw up big time. They speak garbage, comment on presenter’s clothing, say something totally irrelevant and so on. Some get their prepared list of names to thank and read them like a telephone directory. I like speeches that are spontaneous or well thought out. Speeches that reflect how thankful and worthy they are and how much it means to them.

So what’s my favorite of them all? Well, I have to say, I’m not too familiar with speeches pre-1980s. So mine will be restricted for the past three decades. A quick Google search and the popular speeches that throw up are of Julia Roberts (Best Actress 2001 – Erin Brockovich), Tom Hanks (Best Actor 1994 – Philadelphia), Halle Berry (Best Actress 2002 – Monster’s Ball), Michael Moore (Best Documentary 2003 – Bowling For Columbine), Marlon Brando (Best Actor 1973 – The Godfather), and so on. The first two were OK but not really touching in my opinion. Halle Berry’s speech was too emotional for my liking; Moore’s speech was off-topic and of-course, Marlon Brando rejecting his award to show support for Native Americans.

Anyway, here’s my top 3.

#3 – Martin Scorsese (Best Director 2007 – The Departed): Well, I must say this one is biased. I was literally pumping my fist when Marty won it – he being my all-time favorite director. He was nominated for best director *seven* times before but never won it. He finally made it in his eighth attempt – and that made it special. Not a spectacular speech per se but it’s just a personal favorite.
» Video.

#2 (Tied): Russell Crowe (Best Actor 2000 – Gladiator): To quote his speech “If you grow up in the suburbs of anywhere, a dream like this seems kind of vaguely ludicrous and completely unattainable. This moment is directly connected to those imaginings. And for anybody who’s on the downside of advantage, and relying purely on courage, it’s possible.” I think he said it all.
» Video (partial).

#2 (Tied): Adrien Broody (Best Actor 2002 – The Pianist): The speech was more famous for the impromptu kiss with Halle Berry than the speech itself. Firstly I liked the way he said, “Cut it out, cut it out. I get one shot at this” when they start playing the music indicating time’s up. I think the speech was humble, direct and showed it meant a lot to him.
» Video.

#1: Cuba Gooding Jr. (Best Supporting Actor 1997 – Jerry Maguire): I bet most of you expected this. Yes, without doubt, it’s by far my personal favorite. Some people say it was over the top. C’mon, it’s just pure joy to see him refusing to stop his speech even as the orchestra was being played and shout, “I love you. I love you. I love you. I love y’all”. Made everyone stand up and applaud. Make sure you turn up the volume a little to really feel his excitement.
» Video.

This is a humorous take on the subject. Meant to be taken in lighter vein (especially the ‘Cons’). These are from my personal experiences of owning a DSLR for two years. Clearly, the ‘cons’ outweigh the ‘pros’ in number. So ladies and gentlemen, here it goes (in no particular order):

Pros:

1. Anyone can pass off as a professional photographer just by holding a DSLR. Never mind even if you’re holding it for the first time in your life. I was once directed to ‘Press Seating Area’ (right in front of the stage) in a recent event that I attended.
2. You get invited to almost all birthday parties and weddings.
3. People always get in touch with you as an excuse to ask for a photograph they need from the archives.
4. Even the most boring photos of yours are appreciated. It’s not about you, it’s about the DSLR – most believe the ‘big black thing’ just can’t go wrong.
5. You get to prepare personalized gifts for your family and friends. Popular things include: Photo frames (digital ones are way cool), Books, Calendars and of course Photo albums.

Cons:

1. Everyone likes to play with your DSLR. For some reason, even the grown-ups of grown-ups believe it to be a toy. Rotating the zoom lens barrel and pressing all the possible buttons seem to be favorites.
2. The annoying phone-calls/emails/SMSs at ungodly hours from the previous night’s event’s host, asking if I can send the photos right away.
3. People complaining all the time that they can’t frame a photograph using the LCD screen (you have to use the viewfinder). Initially I tried to explain the complexity of the mechanics inside a DSLR, but later I stuck to the answer, “Yeah, that sucks”.
4. The numerous complains about how hefty your luggage is for a one-day trip. I’m tired of explaining that a DSLR with a lens, two extra lenses, a remote flash and couple of small accessories do need an extra bag by itself.
5. Another widely held belief is that if you can operate a DSLR, you’re also a wizard with image manipulation software (namely Photoshop). I get requests to change the background, fix face blemishes and sometime even to morph photographs!
6. You never get to enjoy a public event in peace. You’re pestered for a snap at all times.
7. People think you’re an arrogant rich prick who can afford all the gear with ease. Very few realize that it takes months of savings and a ton of research to get a simple darn lens.
8. You never get to be part of your own pictures. Using a timer is not always an option and people who’ve never used a DSLR suck at operating it – even if it’s just pressing one simple button in auto mode.
9. How you’re subjected to extra security screening at public places (malls, movie theatres, sports stadiums, etc) when you’re spotted with a DSLR. And the headache of how to deal with the situation when they’re not allowed inside.
10. Lastly (and probably the worst thing), you’ll never get credit for the great photos that you take. The usual saying is “Oh, he’s got a DSLR, that’s why”.

Found myself saying the following sentence today: “I was too dumb back then. Today’s youth is much more mature in their thinking”.

“Today’s youth”?!? Man, I’m getting old!

Other (definite) possible signs of my aging:

• I spend more time online researching on topics such as life insurance, health & money management.
• Sedans look cooler than hatchbacks or coupés.
• My knowledge about my family relatives has gone up significantly (from near zero) in the past couple of years.
• Wedding invitation cards seem to come addressed to me rather than my dad.
• Newspaper is the first thing I look for in the mornings.
• Usernames such as ‘hotduuuude’, ‘handsomehunk’, ‘sweetsixteen’ makes me wanna vomit.
• And… every darn unknown younger $*^*&*% seem to address me as “UNCLE!”

AAAAAAARG!

I’ve been writing very little of late. Why? Too many things to reason but here’s the top one – I feel a lot more responsible for what I write.

Rewind six years when I just started blogging. It was fun, it was cool, and it was everything but a serious affair. I first read about blogging in a technology magazine. I liked the idea at once. I used to maintain a personal diary but I wanted something similar online to make short notes when I’m at work/home. Decided to try with blogger.com. It was before Google acquired it and hence was still rough around the edges. Most of my posts would be one or two sentences (twitter equivalent). The content of the posts was personal and trivial and many a times, without any context. Example post: “I’ve used the new Pepsodent Sensational Whitening toothpaste today. I didn’t like it”.

Few months later, the number of sentences grew but the nature of content still remained the same. It was because the only reader of my blog would be me and thus I didn’t find the need to refine what I write. That way, things kind of hit a plateau for a while. That was until I discovered LiveJournal. There were three big reasons for my switch. First, the ability to filter my posts – public, friends-only, list-of-selected-friends-only and of course, private. Second reason: Nested comments. The third and an important reason: the huge community presence and the concept of ‘friends-page’. (RSS wasn’t huge back then). To sum it up, the biggest discovery has been to realize that the joy of blogging is not just in writing but to read the writing of others. An activity I still indulge in everyday.

Of course, my writing improved as I knew few of my friends would read it and I had to make sure it wasn’t complete junk. I think I enjoyed that phase the most.

Blogging soon exploded and became mainstream – thanks to the coupling with the social-networking sites. The number of users grew exponentially. Eventually, there were thousands of writers who would blog professionally/for-a-living. It attracted some very talented writers from across the globe and raised the bar even further. Changes started creeping in me as well – I avoided usage of fancy font faces and colors as I realized it would mess up the layout themes. Curse words took a backseat. Switched to a simple black-on-white theme for my own journal. Started composing posts using word processor to check for any spelling or grammatical mistakes. Refrained from posting heavy pictures on the journal page – used LJ Cuts for picture-heavy/long posts. And with me getting old, I closed all the multiple blogs I had with fancy, teenage-sounding usernames and clubbed everything into one. In short – without my knowledge – I started becoming responsible.

An interesting thing happened few weeks back. When discussing about a particular topic, my friend jumped at me said, “Hey! You’re contradicting your opinion on what you wrote on your blog a year ago!” I was stumped for a second. Neither was my friend wrong nor was I faking a year back. It’s just that my opinion changed in that year. Now here was a dilemma – should I delete my old post because I don’t agree with it anymore? Or should I leave it because it truly reflected my opinion at that point in time? I decided to leave it alone but the whole thing got me (re)thinking about what I write.

I knew that once I compose and hit the ‘Post/Submit’ button, I know it’s written there somewhere in the digital world forever. The Big G will index it soon and archive it till end of time. Eventually, my writing sobered down and more posts became friends-only. I wished for the time where I could blog about the toothpaste I used and how I felt about it.

Having said all that, reading good writing gives me a good dose of satisfaction. And I’ve come to enjoy different styles of writing – both in terms of approach and content – with so many of my friends blogging now. In keeping with the spirit of blogging of this age, I’ll be going light-hearted with my writing henceforth. After all, ten posts in the last one-year doesn’t really qualify as blogging.

I think I’ve come full circle. From discovering that blogging was just a part of joining the ‘bandwagon’ to realizing how powerful medium blogs has become – it has been quiet a journey.

I’ve been following George Carlin’s work only for the last couple of years. And very rarely have I seen anyone impress me so much in such a short span. In fact, he has been the reason for my newfound interest in stand-up comedy in general. Listened to so many people hence and didn’t find anyone who could match up to him.

Today, it saddens me immensely to know that he died in Los Angels at the age of 71.

Rest in Peace, George. You will be missed.

We’ve known each other for four and half years, so nothing fancy. But yes, it’s been two months already since our wedding and all I can say is I’m really very happy